5/12/2010

Membership in an electric co-op has its privileges

I’m often asked why we call those who purchase electricity from an electric power association “members” and not “customers.” The answer is simple.

Just as some of you are members of Rotary and Kiwanis clubs, you are a member of the electric power association that provides your electricity.

Service clubs have a common mission—members work together to accomplish more than an individual could.

The same holds true for high school clubs; they pool resources and work together to help each member succeed.

Membership at your electric power association offers many of the same benefits as clubs do, but with a big extra. You—and the rest of more than 740,000 members of 25 electric power associations in Mississippi—own the co-op! That means we answer to you, not investors who have never walked our streets or spent time in our schools or even been to Mississippi.

This structure harkens back to our origins.

Electric power associations were organized beginning in the mid-1930s by farmers and rural residents, with support from the federal  Rural Electrification Administration (REA) and, in some cases, the Tennessee Valley Authority.

At that time, investor-owned utilities said there wasn’t enough profit to be made to warrant the expense of building power lines reaching into the countryside.

REA offered low-cost loans for bringing electricity to unserved homes and farms. So folks began forming electric cooperatives to meet the need. A fee of a few dollars was collected from each family—making them co-op members and owners—to generate capital for borrowing. The rest is history.

You should be proud of what your electric power association has accomplished. We are an economic driver in the communities we serve. A 2009 study funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture found electric co-ops across the U.S. employ 130,000 Americans, both directly and indirectly, with revenues topping out at $45 billion.

Best of all, every electric power association operates on a not-for-profit basis.

Electric co-op membership remains as important today as it was in the late 1930s. And all of the nation’s 900-plus electric co-ops in 47 states share a common mission: to keep electric power safe, affordable and reliable.

Working together, we’re keeping our needs at the top of Congress’s agenda. We’re part of something special—a nationwide network owned and controlled by people like you and me.

That’s why membership matters.

Michael Callahan, CEO
Electric Power Associations of Mississippi

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